The Doctor and the Darling
by Metrowolf
Summary: Luna Lovegood has it hard for a ten year old. Her father became severely depressed after the death of her mother, and she just doesn't know what to do. But when she asks for help and a mysterious doctor appears, how can Luna resist a universe of possibilities?
1. Chapter 1

Luna sat at her desk, her cheek against the scratched wood, staring at the unicorn figurine prancing across her desk. Her father had gotten it for her on her fifth birthday, claiming all little girls should have a unicorn, regardless of their size. Her mother had laughed when she saw the pristine horse, but she too thought it was a good gift. Luna couldn't have been happier then.

The unicorn let out a broken knicker, which had been quite lovely when it was new, but since the magic had started to wear off it only seemed sick. It's movements were almost as jerky as it's voice, and watching it approach her was like watching a old muggle robot toy. Luna had a half mind to throw the little horse in the trash, but she didn't throw it out when her mother died, she wasn't going to throw it out now. Tears dribbled onto the desk top.

Finally Luna sat up, wiped her eyes, and held her hand out for the unicorn to get on. It let out another broken noise, but this time the noise was a happy one. Despite it's state of despair it walked toward her obediently, keeping it's chipped beard high. Luna placed it up onto her dresser and opened the top drawer. Inside was her mother's old wand.

Her father had tried to throw the wand out after the accident. He had wanted to get rid of everything that reminded him of her. Luna saved it from the trash. It was the only thing she had left of her mother, and she wasn't going to let anyone get rid of it. In a year, when she got her Hogwarts letter, Luna would take the wand and use it as her own. She flicked it without thinking, and a few smokey moths fluttered out of the tip and circled her head. Well, she still had a year before she had to learn how to use it for real.

She heard a crash from downstairs. Luna winced, but made no other sign she had even heard it. Immediately following her mother's death, her father had become depressed. That was understandable of course, Luna was upset by it was well, but then he seemed to be getting better. It took yearss, but he finally started to smile at her again. He took her for picnics, and trips to Hogsmead, and they camped out looking for wrackspurts and watching the stars. And then, just a slowly as he had become happy, he was sad again. Luna had spent the past year taking care of herself as he showed no interest in doing it anymore. He would often fly in a rampage, using just his hands to destroy entire rooms at a time. He'd fix them up when he snapped out of it of course, but he would just get angry again later and destroy the same things again and again. Other times Luna saw him crying when he thought he was alone. She had learned to be brave, but her father frightened her when he got into one of his moods.

Luna waved the wand again. Maybe if she wished really hard someone would come and make her dad better. Then they could go out and hunt for wrackspurts and drink dirgible tea until one of them started to float. The wand glowed faintly and then went out. Luna closed her eyes. "Can anyone help me?" She whispered desperately to no one at all.

That's when she heard the strangest sound she had ever heard in her life. A sort of wheezing noise, like the printing press when it was out of magic. She opened her eyes and looked out the window. Out in the field stood a tall blue box that had not been there earlier. Walking toward the front door was a tall thin man with brown hair and the air of a really important child. Luna leaned out her window to get a better look. He stopped outside the gate and glanced around. Luna ducked under her window, and then peaked back out. To her surprise, he was pulling a metal wand out of his jacket and pointing it at her house.

Luna watched in horror as the wand opened up and the tip glowed green faintly. She heard a small buzzing noise as the man waved the wand about, and then withdrew it. He inspected it for a moment before smiling and stepping through the gate. Luna found she wasn't going to wait upstairs any longer. She rushed or the stairs, and crept down them as quickly as she could so her father wouldn't try to stop her. Luna saw him sitting at a table with his back towards her and she stopped. Somehow, the room around him seemed darker than it should have, like something was eating the light.

A paper fluttered to the floor snapping Luna out of her daze. She shrugged, assuming it was a trick of the light and continued her descent. She reached the front door and tugged it open. The man on the other side had just lifted his hand and look extremely surprised to see her. Luna was sure she looked a bit messy from her mad dash down the stairs, but she found it in herself to not care.

"Oh hello!" The man said brightly. "Was it you who asked for help?"

Luna took a deep breath. "That was fast."

"Ah yes that's me! Mr. Fasty Fasterton. Oh wait, no that's not my name. Not even close. I meant that I am very fast. No, that doesn't sound quite right either. Let me just start over." He paused, as if trying to compose himself. "Hello! I'm the Doctor."

Luna stared at him for a moment. "The doctor? You're really here to help my dad?"

"Why?" The Doctor leaned against the door frame. "Does you're dad need help?"

"What did you do with your wand? Were you casting a spell?" Luna asked, not quite sure she should be telling all her problems to this stranger.

"Wand? Spell?" The Doctor asked blankly. Then he snapped his fingers and pulled the metal wand back out of his jacket. "This isn't a wand, it's a screwdriver! Though I'm not quiet sure you'd know what that is. Blimey, how long has it been since I last visited the magic folk?" He itched his chin, and then put the wand back away. "Speaking of which, Slazar Slytherin isn't still alive is he? I still owe him a duel."

"Slazar Slytherin? One of the Hogwarts founders?"

"Oh, they went with Hogwarts?" The Doctor smiled. "I had so hoped they would listen to me and call it Pigfarts, but I guess you can't win them all, eh?"

Luna stared at him for a minute. What on earth was he babbling about? There was no way he could have been alive when the founders were. That was thousands of years ago, and he looked like he was barely twenty five. Though Luna was only ten, so she wasn't very good at telling other people's ages.

"So, uh." The Doctor said after it became clear she wasn't speaking. "Let's go help your father!" He waited a polite moment, and when Luna took a step back he entered the house and marched upstairs. She watched as he trailed off. He seemed so young and immature, but deep down Luna felt like she could trust him. From his bow tie to his strange screwdriver wand. She smiled. Maybe this man could help her at last. Then the screaming started.


	2. Chapter 2

"Get out! Get out of my house you monster!" Luna raced up the stairs at the sound of her father's voice. She nearly ran headlong into the doctor, who was making his way back down the stairs, his hands raised in a defensive gesture.

"What did you do?" Luna gasped as a spell burst on the wall above them.

"I did nothing!" The doctor gasped in a mildly panicked voice. He had just run up there without thinking about it at all, but Luna found she believed him. Her dad would never over react like this, he loved it when strangers came to visit. They would sit and have terrible tea and talk about the quibbler. Not this.

"Dad!" Luna said angrily, marching past the doctor into the study. She had enough time to register that the dark spot had grown, looked like some sort of creature, before the doctor cried out.

"No!" He shouted, pulling her back down the stairs as another spell exploded where she had just been standing. The doctor picked her up and ran right out the house. "A wise man always knows when to retreat." He muttered as shouts of "And stay out!" Followed them to the front door.

"Are you good? Fine? Dandy?" The doctor asked as he scanned her for any signs of injuries. The continued walking across Luna's front lawn, but she barely noticed where they were going, or what he had said. Her father had tried to hurt her. Maybe it was an accident, but she had come way to close to being hit by a spell.

"Whats wrong with my dad?" Luna asked. Finally the doctor stopped walking and looked down at her. He had seemed like an over confident young man when she had first seen him, but now as he struggled to find the right words, he seemed ageless, wise, and very very sad.

"I didn't get a very good look at it, but I'm pretty sure I know what is was." He said slowly, continuing to walk. Luna looked up and noticed the blue box for the first time. She had never seen anything like it before, and it was beautiful. "I just need to run a few scans in the Tardis, and you can stay with me until I can fix this up." Then he seemed to consider his words and looked at her sheepishly. "That is, if you want to of course."

Luna was still trying to comprehend what he had said about her dad. That thing by him, that had to be part of her imagination. "What what was?" She asked in irritation. "Have you never seen a wizard before?"

The doctor stopped just before the blue box, his hands on the handles. He stared at the windows, as if they had the answers Luna wanted. "That was your dad yes, but the thing next to him..." He trailed off and opened the door. "Well, give me a moment and I'll know for sure what it was." He repeated, stepping into the box.

Luna gave a small sigh and followed him in, she couldn't fix any thing by herself. She wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting when she stepped into the box, she hadn't thought about it very much. Maybe a bit of junk, since he had been talking about scanners, or maybe a fireplace so he could use the floo network, but she had not been expecting this. Inside the box was enormous, which was not the surprising bit. Luna stared in wonder at the gleaming console that sat in the center of the room, where the doctor was flipping levers and looking intently at a screen. There were so many buttons, switches, things to be pulled and tugged, Luna even saw a coat hanger poking out.

"It's wonderful." She breathed as she turned around to take in the rest of the ship. It's high ceiling with strange orange lights, it had stairs that lead out of sight which meant more rooms, and there was even a space underneath the controls.

"Isn't it? I just love this bit. Bigger on the inside and all." He smiled back at her, taking time to look up from the screen.

"Undetectable extension charm." Luna nodded knowingly. I've seen my dad use it before."

The doctor puffed up his cheeks indignantly. "It is not some spell- oh never mind, you wizard folk are so gosh darn impossible to impress!" He turned back to the screen.

"What are you doing even?" Luna asked, walking up behind him. She could see her own house on the screen he was looking at. A few wavy lines were crossing the screen every few seconds, and every time a new number showed up on the left side.

"I'm scanning the house for it's extraterrestrial aura levels."

"What?"

"I'm looking for aliens." He said, leaning back on his large feet. He smiled at her and fixed his odd little red bow tie.

"Aliens?" Luna replied a bit skeptically. She was ten now, and that made her a grown up, so she didn't believe in sill things like aliens or Santa Claus anymore.

"Yes, Aliens. I think a leech like creature, is feeding off your dad's negative emotions, making him angry." The doctor replied seriously. Somehow, Luna felt that he was right. Maybe she wasn't sold about the aliens bit, but her father's anger just wasn't natural.

"And what can we do about it?" Luna asked, leaning against the Tardis console.

"I'm working on that too." The doctor frowned. "Give me time and I will fix everything, I promise."


End file.
